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The key to happiness is a higher purpose

When working out at the gym, one puts her body through a lot of pain. But she is determined to go through it because she sees a higher purpose for putting herself through the pain. There is a reward of a healthy and fit body as a consequence of the pain.

When toiling away several hours a day writing, most of which will be thrown away, one puts her brain through a lot of pain. But she does it anyway as there is a higher purpose in creating something meaningful, something that matters and something that can make a difference to those who read it.

There is drudgery and pain all around. The point is not to do away with it. But to identify the higher purpose that it serves.

When the night is at its darkest, we tend to feel crushed and dejected at the pain we put ourselves through.

Everybody goes through this.

But the difference between a happy man and an unhappy man is just that one identifies the higher purpose that the current pain has the potential to result in and the other doesn't.

When we strip away the higher purpose from what we do everyday, then most things we do become a drudgery.

And this higher purpose isn't what a priest or a religious leader telling you to bear the pain until it gets better because it is all God's will or some BS like that.

It is what you believe you are working towards. It is what you define as your virtues and your way of life.

Having blind faith that we are merely pawns in the giant cosmic game does no good to us. Instead, have faith in a higher purpose that you define for yourself and one that justifies your current pain.